Book Review: TURNING JAPANESE by MariNaomi
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Turning Japanese Graphic Memoir by MariNaomi |
| 2D Cloud, 2016 $24.95 |
“The year was 1995 and I was twenty-two years old.”
MariNaomi’s Turning Japanese begins with a breakup and ends with a homecoming. It’s a memoir that chronicles the protagonist’s personal evolution from job to job, from hemisphere to hemisphere. It’s a story that details MariNaomi’s reunion with a culture she thought she left behind. A fascinating visual insight into the mind of a torn-up twenty-something, desperate for some sort of solace in the country she barely remembers from childhood: Japan.
The graphic novel format was a bit jarring at first, but I very easily adjusted to the irreverent, very nearly goofy artwork that filled page after page. After finishing it, I can’t picture Turning Japanese in any other format—it is simply necessary that it be a graphic memoir. The illustrated form allows the reader to focus on the strong dialogue, while the scene spills out around the speech balloons. MariNaomi talks family, sex, cultural divide, all while lighting a cigarette, preparing snacks, or gauging a client’s behavior. Emotions are represented by emoticons and Cathy-esque sweat droplets and “Ack!”s. Characters’ faces are exaggerated and cartoonish, and oftentimes directly compliment the humor of the situations in which MariNaomi finds herself.
And there are many, many humorous situations. As often occurs in cases of extreme culture shock, there are misunderstandings that come about, whether through botched language, missed cues, or alien gestures. MariNaomi hits them all with the curiosity and wit of a wide-eyed young traveler. She’s on a quest for understanding. She’s put herself on an adventure hoping for an ending.
After a breakup, MariNaomi finds work in the illegal hostess bars of San Jose, which eventually whisks her and a new lover away to the hostess bars of Tokyo. It is here she forces herself to change according to the culture around her: she learns the language; she visits with long-lost family. In their strange ways, her fellow hostesses and regular clients help her to adapt and survive.
Clocking in at 216 pages of emotive illustrations and unflinching, smartly crafted dialogue, Turning Japanese chronicles MariNaomi’s bizarre journey of retouching old lineage. At its core, it is a compelling tale of a traveling youth, seeking to find something meaningful on the other side of the Earth.
Turning Japanese will be out from 2D Cloud on May 16, 2016.